scholarly journals Queer English Language Teacher Identity: A Narrative Exploration in Colombia

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-101
Author(s):  
Roderick Lander

This article presents partial results of research exploring links between language teacher identity and queer identity in English language teachers working in Colombia. Three gay male teachers participated in a narrative research project framed within a poststructural perspective on identity. I conducted and recorded semi-structured interviews with the participants and then carried out a thematic analysis of these interviews which led to the emergence of three main themes. Here, I present the most prevalent theme, that of being a gay language teacher in the Colombian context which reveals that the participants all live their queer identity alongside their language teacher identity with ease although they do recount instances of homophobia which have impacted their day-to-day lives and their careers.

RELC Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-474
Author(s):  
Teymour Rahmati ◽  
Karim Sadeghi ◽  
Farah Ghaderi

Recent research has identified a direct link between language teachers’ self and motivation, and their relationship with conceptual change and professional development. A better understanding of the exact manner in which language teachers’ perceptions of self interact with their motivation, however, requires further empirical evidence from a variety of contexts employing various research methods. Drawing upon possible selves theory and Activity Theory, the present mixed-methods research explored language teacher vision and its relationship with motivation in the Iranian state sector language education context. In the first qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 teachers on their vision and motivation to teach English. In the second quantitative phase, a researcher-developed questionnaire informed by the interview data was electronically administered to in-service language teachers (N = 211). Data analysis identified a typology of English language teacher vision and a positive relationship (r = .59) between vision and motivation. A coefficient determination of around 35% showed the degree of covariance between the two constructs. Furthermore, the study indicated that some contradictions among the rules, tools, community, and division-of-labour components of language teacher motivation activity system mediated the motivational force of vision. The study implies that teacher education programmes should raise English language teachers’ awareness of the positive motivational force of vision.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-214
Author(s):  
Diego Ubaque-Casallas

This paper describes a narrative study that emerged from various conversations with an English language teacher at a public university in Bogotá, Colombia. This research is based on intersectional narratives to locate the intersections between English language pedagogy and the identities of English language teachers. Second, the study examined discourses that can construct English language pedagogy and teachers’ identities by avoiding simplistic generalizations and essentialisms. Findings suggest that although there are still colonial roots that repress other ways of being and doing, English language pedagogy goes beyond the instrumental sense of teaching. As such, English language pedagogy is about transformation as it is never static because it is an extension of identity.


RELC Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 347-363
Author(s):  
Malba Barahona ◽  
Ximena Ibaceta-Quijanes

The literature on language teacher identity describes teacher identity as dynamic, shaped through professional and personal experiences and mediated by peer interaction, the effects of pedagogical strategies and professional discourses (Barkhuizen, 2017). This article reports on key findings from a study that investigated the perceptions of Chilean teachers of English about their work and their identity as language teachers. Data were collected through an online questionnaire with 716 respondents from teachers of English across Chile. The questionnaire included specific questions on teachers’ motivation, the nature of effective teaching practices, types of professional development and factors that contribute to their professional learning. The analysis of two critical open-ended questions related to levels of teacher satisfaction and valorization revealed that although teachers feel generally satisfied with their jobs, at the same time they feel essentially undervalued and somewhat illegitimate. Factors such as standards frameworks which compel teachers to validate their knowledge of the language, constraints in relation to working conditions and modest salary levels directly contributed to the perceptions of satisfaction and valorization. A significant implication of this study is the need for a more complex understanding of the motivations that drive the development of English language teacher identity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 148
Author(s):  
Dr. David Wealthy Guerrero

<p><em>This qualitative descriptive case study reports the features in autonomy dynamics of three Colombian English language teachers in public schools in the District in Bogota Colombia. Three semi-structured interviews and reflective journals were used for data collection. The research question that guided this study was: What perceptions about autonomy do the three Colombian English language teachers have? The general purpose of this investigation was to identify the main features in teachers’ perceptions related to Autonomy. The specific objective was to identify the strategies that promoted autonomy in Teachers of English as a Foreign Language -TEFL- in different public schools in Bogota, Colombia. The study is, therefore, particularly significant as it can play a role in encouraging Colombian English as a Foreign Language -EFL- teachers to relate the factors needed to get a high quality in Education dynamics. Data indicated that the process heightened the teachers’ awareness of ‘self’ and practice. Autonomy also activated both the teachers’ ability to critically reflect on their context as well as focus on positive aspects of their practice through the willingness to improve their academic abilities and research production. Taken together, the findings serve as baseline data to further professional development in language assessment. </em></p><em></em><em></em>


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-46
Author(s):  
Mehmet DEMİREZEN

Accurate pronunciation is an important part of learning any language, and especially when non-native students are trained to be English language teachers. Good pronunciation is more than just mastering individual sounds since it also requires understanding intonation, stress, pitch and junctures. In this respect, first things first, two functional issues come to the stage: Spelling pronunciation versus relaxed pronunciation. Spelling pronunciation depends on the use of a pronunciation that is based on spelling that includes common pronunciation of the silent vowel and consonant letters. The converse of spelling pronunciation is pronunciation spelling which produces the creation of a new spelling form on the basis of pronunciation. In this study, the contrastive positioning of spelling pronunciation versus pronunciation spelling in English words, phrases, clauses, and sentences will be analyzed to train the English teachers.


Author(s):  
Lucas Moreira dos Anjos-Santos ◽  
Michele Salles El Kadri ◽  
Raquel Gamero ◽  
Telma Gimenez

This chapter aims to demonstrate how a group of educators from a southern Brazilian state university designed and implemented formative workshops to sustain English language teachers' professional development through digital and media literacies. The chapter maps important changes that have happened in language teacher education in Brazil and the convergences these changes share with digital and media literacies coming from a sociocultural paradigm. It also presents and discusses the extent to which the instructional material the group of educators produced for the continuing education of English language teachers integrated 21st century skills and the standards from the TESOL technology framework. As a way to evaluate the instructional material, the chapter analyzes the representations and identities schoolteachers constructed when engaging with digital and media literacies through the instructional material. The chapter concludes by advocating more social, political and collaborative future research in language teacher education and digital and media literacies.


Author(s):  
Elyanora Yusufovna Menglieva ◽  
Fareeha Manzoor

The rapid shift to virtual teaching in response to the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in emergency remote teaching (ERT) and has highlighted the numerous multilevel challenges associated with it in the countries from the Global South. This chapter aims to explore how this shift to remote teaching has affected English language teachers' level of motivation and how they have adapted to it. In addition, this study offers quantitative and qualitative insights into the effectiveness of the resources employed by EFL/ESL teachers. This is done by analyzing the surveys of 34 teachers and interviews of four teachers from Uzbekistan and Pakistan. Through thematic analysis of the interviews, a detailed account of the challenging factors and their coping strategies were found. This chapter concludes with a discussion on the lessons learned and recommendations on how to make a relatively smoother transition to remote teaching.


Author(s):  
Ece Zehir Topkaya ◽  
Handan Çelik

This study investigates the effects of teacher portfolio construction upon in-service English language teachers' perceived teaching competencies. With the participation of six non-native teachers, data were collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews conducted before and after a sixteen-week teacher portfolio construction program. Analyses of the data through descriptive statistics and inductive content analysis revealed that the teachers' perceptions related to their teaching competencies were quite high prior to the portfolio construction process. After the process, however, decrease was observed in the teachers' perceived competencies. Findings also showed that the portfolio construction program was effective for the teachers' in that the process led them to become more self-evaluative, thus reflective and realistic about their competencies.


2019 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayriye Kayi-Aydar

The topic of language teacher identity receives strong attention in current scholarly literature. Understanding the complexities of identities that second/foreign language teachers construct is crucial because the ways teachers perceive themselves as professionals impact teacher development (e.g., Kanno & Stuart, 2011*), interactions with peers and colleagues (e.g., Kayi-Aydar, 2015*), pedagogical choices or classroom practices (e.g., Duff & Uchida, 1997*), and access to power and ownership of language (De Costa & Norton, 2017*; Varghese et al., 2016*), ultimately undergirding or undermining second/foreign language teaching (Varghese et al., 2016*).


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